Jonathan Richman (and a Modern Lover?) At The Shepherd's Bush Empire
What can I say about the evening? Wonderful. Just wonderful. I left the gig with a huge smile on my face, swathed in good vibes and wanting to just give the whole world a cuddle despite a rather uncompromising conclusion to the show. That should not have been entirely unexpected: Jonathan Richman does not tend to do "compromise".
You can never be sure about what you are about to get with Jonathan Richman. His back catalogue has visited many genres and shown a quirkier take on most than might be expected. I'll provide a brief potted history for the sake of context. The journey is just about as important as the destination.
Jonathan famously grew up around the area that spawned The Velvet Underground. Completely unknown outside local circles they inspired a very young Jonathan and informed his earliest recordings. His first ever vynyl release was simply entitled The Modern Lovers and the influences on it are as clear as day. If you like The Velvets then you will simply adore this album. Notable tracks on it are Astral Plane and Pablo Picasso but it's all killer and no filler.
I think that the album was recorded and then canned for a year or two before it came out in 1976 and by the time it did come out Jonathan had musically moved on. The Modern Lovers was something of an underground, cult smash and was a hugely influential album on the US's East Coast music scene. Jonathan adopted the name "Modern Lovers" for the loose collective of musicians that he performed with ~ some of whom went on to notable success in bands like The Talking Heads and The Cars.
The song Pablo Picasso is a pivotal one in his reprtoire and was the first time that a certain quirky humour surfaced alongside the Velvetian rhythms. It was the quirkiness and humour that was to go on to define much of his later output although the rhythmic simplicity is also an underlying feature. It was as a result of the stripped down nature of his music accompanied by a fairly relentlessly industrial throb that has led him to be described as The Godfather Of Punk. I think is is a bit strong, to be honest, but the "I could do that" nature of his beginnings in homage to the velvets and the subsequent simplicity of much of his music definitely deserves a mention in this context ~ we are not talking about an approach that Emmerson, Lake & Palmer would ever have considered here.
The childlike nature of much of his output is shocking, truly shocking to some adult ears. "Who is this bloke?" and "What is he on?" are questions often asked, not unreasonably, by those that encounter his music for the first time. Some will just reject it out of hand. Some will embrace it. It's those who take the music for what it is that will gain the most and those who reject it will never know what they are missing out on. There is nothing hidden, there are no allusions to profundity or politics. What there is is simple honesty and no little insight into life itself. I can't emphasis the "simple" enough. It is another facet to his music which can make people reject him and his approach. For him no emotion is too personal to be explored, no feeling is out of bounds. Some look at his songs and are repelled by what they may feel is arch, mawkish sentiment. Well that is exactly what is is for the best part but where most run away from such things Jonathan just rushes over and gives it all a metaphorical great big hug. He quite simply could not be an Englishman it just isn't in our national psyche to be quite as brash about our deepest and most personal thoughts, feelings and emotions. You may hate what he does but what he does is done with absolute and complete sincerity and conviction.
More grovelling thanks to http://www.flickr.com/photos/henrybloomfield/ from whom I have blatantly stolen the pictures of Jonathan on stage. Is that a new shirt he's wearing?
That gives a flavour of what he does and what he has been doing for years. He had a brief spell as a pop star in the late '70s when Roadrunner was a global hit. Egyptian Reggae was another and I have memories of Pan's People dancing to it on Top Of The Pops. Largely though fame and commercial success has eluded him but then that is in no small part to his idiosyncratic approach and his determination to plough his own furrow despite what anybody else might want him to do. Artistically he has dabbled in many styles and apart from the proto-punk of his earliest stuff and the Nursery Rhyme parallel that I drew he has also made CDs in a C&W-stylee (another big turn off factor for some), '50s doo-wop Rock 'n' Roll and some even sung entirely in Spanish!!
Truly you can never be sure what to expect.
I have been fortunate enough to see him in concert once before. That was in the late '80s (I can't be sure of the year) at Elephant Fayre which was a mini-Glastonbury type festival held at St German's in SE Cornwall. I remember the gig quite well. Iwas sharing a flat with a mate called Meaks at the time. He was with me and his girlfriend, Mary, was there too. Jonathan was on the afternoon. He turned up with a couple of backing musicians: there was a stand up bass player and a lady backing singer. That was it. No drums or other backing. If any percussion was needed then he either stamped on the stage or tapped the body of his guitar to provide it. What followed was unknown, to me ~ then, songs all delivered in the simplest Rock n Roll style that you could imagine. Wonderful. If ever a time or a venue was right for his song That Summer Feeling then that was it. I was utterly transformed and carried away to a better place. Meaks hated it. Mary, who had never heard of him before that day, became an instant fan. There in a nutshell you have him and the effect that he has on people.
A string of hard to get CDs followed over the years. Jonathan continued along his own personal little voyage doing what he does, and I guess, what he simply must. The World went on it's path and the two seemed fairly oblivious to one another. Then a second blast of fame due in no part to a very gross sperm joke in the film There's Something About Mary.
The sperm joke was nothing to do with him (he would never be so crude) but it helped sell the Farelly Brothers' film. They are huge fans of his and used him through the film to link transitional parts of the film with songs; one performed with Jonathan up a tree, like you do, I remember. Think of the cockerel troubadour in Disney's Robin Hood and you aren't far off.
...and we are more or less up to the present day.
I was using Pasoti one evening and one of the users (Block 3 Row Q maybe?) had seen a Jonathan Richman gig advertised. "Is anybody going?" I just could not resist despite having to travel from Plymouth to Shepherd's Bush for the gig I just had to go. Thanks to the internet getting tickets is quick and easy these days for such events; after a few clicks and I was on my way. Huge thanks to Block 3 for bringing it to my attention.
My mate Graham and I went. On arrival we discovered that we had missed the every start of the gig, which was down to London traffic and the scarcity of available parking in the Shepherd's Bush area but never mind. The Empire is a typical old fashioned London venue. Obviously it was a conventional theatre rather than a concert venue and it was far smaller than expected. On entry we were immediately confronted by a bar. Ordinarily this is no bad thing but it ran all of the way across the back of the hall and in front of it was a seated area. I couldn't see but I assume there was a "Gods" section above us too. Capacity of the venue? I'd put it at about 1500. All in all quite an intimate arena and well-suited to this particular performer.
The performance echoed the one all those years ago in Cornwall. The venue was hot. Jonathan's approach uncomplicated. This time he had a drummer to help him. The set that followed was a typical example of what he does on stage. Before the show I didn't know what to expect at all. I was half afraid that we might get an evening of nursery rhymes sung in Spanish... What we got was an evening of huge entertainment, gentle fun and some silly dancing all based on his rather excellent acoustic guitar playing. It included probably the most understated, and possibly shortest, drum solo you could ever wish to see as Tommy (or was it Tony?) wielded the brushes and the sticks with the ping pong ball on the end as much as he did the conventional sticks.
Physically Jonathan looks exactly as he has for the duration of his career to this point ~ there must be a picture ageing horribly in an attic somewhere as Jonathan's youth springs eternal.
The songs sung in a foreign language were there and that was not a bad thing. One of them, the one about the Sweaty Lovers, he sang in English before abruptly stopping. "...and here's the same song sung in French". It was the same song, as far as my schoolboy French could tell, but the arrangement and tune were totally different. There was another song sung in Italian. Nothing in Spanish though and no nursery rhyme type songs. The closest we got to that was Pablo Picasso which was re-arranged from the original and played to in Spanish-sounding guitar style rather than the rhythmic dirge (in a good way) of the original and/or earlier versions of the song.
There was real love and affection in the theatre for him. This was the only show in the UK and he had only just arrived, by train, from Barcelona and was off, via train again so he said, to Dublin. I guess he must have a real fear of flying. I suppose it is also fair to assume that everybody that was there would be a real die hard fan of his music and if you were a fan in the UK then there is only one place to have been last night and that was at the Shepherd's Bush Empire. In passing it has to be noted that he obvious has some celebrity fans. I was stood next to comedian Rich Hall (I mean right next to) and bumped into Adrian Edmondson, too. I spoke to him "Are you Adrian Edmondson?" "Yes." "I've come all the way from Devon, too." I couldn't think of anything similarly brilliant to say to Rich Hall.
The songs? I didn't know them all and he didn't give much detail as to titles and the like. We compiled a list afterwards and this was the best we could come up with (not in the same order and with many omissions):
No One Was Like Vermeer Sweaty Lovers (?) Pablo Picasso I Was Dancing In A Lesbian Bar Not So Much To be Loved As To Love He Gave Us The Wine To Taste In Che Mondo Viviano (in this world that we live in) Too Young For This Older Girl Because Her Beauty Is Raw And Wild
The show finished with 2 encores the last of which was the brutally personal This Is What I Learned As My Mother Lay On Her Deathbed. As lines go it's a as hard to follow as "I once had sex with a post-op transsexual" (I didn't but I know a man who did). Could it be followed? No ~ and he didn't even try.
The End.
Almost...
I have had to Google around a bit to get some of the info in this report and in doing so I happened across this little preview of the gig from London's Time Out website:
The sainted – some might say insanely over-rated – Mr Richman returns with his almost Latinesque take on guitar-pop, still providing the loveliest of melodies. Expect all the hits – from the rockin' 'Roadrunner', to the soppy 'Morning Of Our Lives', the gleeful lunacy of 'I'm A Little Dinousaur' and the rudeness of 'Pablo Picasso' - performed with gusto and sincerity to the faithful.
That has actually enraged me. Quite how the writer can so glibly knock such an influential and original performer and then be so completely and wildly inaccurate with regard to what to expect from the show is beyond me. If there is an award for "lazy journalism" (a favourite phrase on the Pasoti messageboard) then that surely walks away with it. Apart from inaccurate and snidey snippets in Time Out I wonder just how close this wretched retch has ever got to the same level of achievement or whether he ever held the attention of theatreful of gig-goers for 2 hours? Somehow I suspect not. I suppose writing like a talentless twat is to be expected from somebody so clearly unable to perceive the talent in others. For every Roadrunner there has to be a Wile E. Coyote, I guess. What a shame this coyote's acme typewriter allows him to get such drivel published.
Here are a couple of links that you may like to check out:
If this review of the show has entertained you just a tiny bit as much as I was entertained last night then I urge you to check out his work. Start anywhere you like and if you are not impressed then try something else. I'm sure that one day he would just click with everybody. If you want a prod as to where a good place to start is then go for the debut album The Modern Lovers, the seminal Modern Lovers Live In London, Jonathan Sings, Jonathan Goes Country or the newest release Because Her Beauty Is Raw And Wild.
If I have managed to blag the right bit of code from the vapor website there is a free song here for you to listen to.
Interestingly Jonathan is now recording for Neil Young's Vapor Records (I think it is his label anyway). I would love to see Jonathan added to The Hop Farm line up. Come on Neil!! You know it would make sense. It's something I would love to see and this man deserves a bigger, and I mean much bigger, audience.
Finally: I found this tucked away on the Vapor Records website:
Please note that Jonathan Richman does not have any direct involvement with the Vapor Records website and does not participate in the internet on any level.
What follows would have been absolutely impossible to complete without frequent reference to GoS/SV: Thanks, chaps.
When I, accidentally, started this blog the intention was to ponder on the greater picture. Not the minutiae of detail but The Big Idea. That's why I have never gone in for match reports or anything like that. Ian De Lar does that on Pasoti and there is little point in recording day-to-day events as Trev does that in his Semper Viridis Diary feature. They both do what they do with no little flair and distinction and I have never intended to compete with them and still don't. I'd like to think that I'm adding something vaguely worthwhile to the Argyle cyber-pot with what I do though and the pub reviews will keep coming (in fact there is a great deal of research to be added but I think I'll ration those out to fill in the dull days of the Summer break). After a season such as the one we have just had it would be remiss of me just to let it slip by without putting onto the record my thoughts about it.
It must be the most remarkable season that Argyle has ever had. I can't think of any to compare anyway. It had some of the highest highs and some of the lowest lows that I can remember in all of my time as a supporter and for those who are new to all of this that takes me back to the early '70s so it is hardly a narrow perspective.
I have produced a graph which details our league position as the season unfolded so we may as well start with that:
It's interesting in itself for what it is and what it reveals. For a start we obviously had a comfortable season. We were barely in the lower half at all and never threatened a relegation spot. We all know about the financial constraints under which we operate and bearing them in mind we have to applaud what has been another successful season with yet another improved final league position compared to the previous year. That's the 7th year running that we have improved. If we aren't careful we will set a record ~ that's if we haven't already. Despite that there is a feeling that we have somehow not quite achieved what we might have. Somebody started a thread on Pasoti asking for a picture to sum up the season. I posted the darts one shown here. A dart in the outer bull seemed just about right. It hit the target and scored well but was not what we were aiming for and was, even though it was a commendable effort, a near miss and ultimately disappointing. We had hoped for most of the season to get a play-off spot and even going into the final few games it was on if we could just string a mere handful of results together. Sadly we could not.
As for the rest... where do you start? There has been a flatness to the season and this has troubled me for some time. The nature and character of Home Park as a venue seems to have altered. Now I may be muddling cause and effect here but that seems to have held us back all year and the feeling that something big, very big, was just around the corner never really took hold despite the fact that it actually was virtually all season long. Indeed it was within our grasp on more than one occasion but we failed to capitalise on it either by just not realising or by letting it drop like sand through our fingers. Why was that belief never there? I have to point an accusatory finger at our home form. It has just not been good enough and that goes back to the very start of the season.
The atmosphere inside the ground as a whole has been flat all year too. Recently there has been a groundswell of complaints against the stewarding at Home Park and the enforcement of the no-standing policy. I have some sympathy here with both sides. Whatever the rights and wrongs the season ended at the right time. The issue was getting too heated and fraught. I hope something can change for next season because we need the excitement and atmosphere in the ground that just is not there at present.
Our home record for the season reads W9 D9 L5 F37 A22. That looks OK, and it is if you want to finish 10th, but it ultimately disappoints. Historically our seasons have been built on the bedrock of our home form and this time that form was not good enough from the very beginning to the very end. From the start of the season when Ipswich, Leicester (more of whom later), Cardiff and Wolves all came to Home Park and all left with a point the seeds of dissatisfaction were sown. 4 points out of a possible 12. It was not until the visit of Palace in October that we managed a win. By now we were into the third month of the season and whereas we could justifiably blame bad luck we had to admit that we got away with one against Wolves for whom Michael Kightly was superb ~ poor Gary Sawyer must still be having nightmares about it and hopefully his blood has had time to untwist itself since.
Along the way we did win a couple of matches. This ought to be cause for celebration but even Argyle these days don't view the League Cup with any great fervour. We played weird line-ups and managed to beat Wycombe and Doncaster which got us into the third round against West Ham. Heady heights indeed and this was far more success than we had enjoyed in this competition in what seemed like decades. Sadly despite a good display we lost to an injury-time goal at the Boleyn ground. Still never mind. Chin up and onwards.
Maybe that was a match we could never win against opponents with a host of star names but we did play a strong team and if we could have nicked it... I know that our priority is, and must always be, the league but we are now an established CCC side and we just might get a bit of luck in the draw and go a long way in this competition. It's not impossible that we could win it and a place in the final might cough up a UEFA Cup spot even if we did not. Should we go close it would be a money-spinner for the club, build the club's profile and give everything and everybody a shot in the arm. The PL teams do not take it seriously and if we did then who knows. Maybe next year. One thing is certain and that is we need the favourable publicity that a Cup Run brings and it is the sort of thing that we ought to be achieving if we are to challenge right at the top of the CCC.
Ian Holloway has rubbished speculation linking him with the vacant Norwich City job and pledged his future to Argyle. He said: "I haven't heard a word from Norwich and all this kind of speculation is both news to me and entirely unwanted. It's not a surprise, because whenever your team is doing well, as mine is, and there is a vacancy elsewhere, your name seems to be inevitably linked. Yes, it's a feather in our club's cap that my name is on somebody's list, but I'm not interested in the post. I'm fully focused on the job I have here at Plymouth Argyle."
Back to the grind and we had a run of home inconsistency following the Palace game: WWLWLWDWD (Palace, Cov, Wednesday, Norwich, WBA, Scunny, Turnips, QPR and Stoke respectively) which took us up to the New Year. 17 points out of 27. A bit more like it but given the lack lustre start still not good enough to fully make up the lost ground.
Crowds just did not take off as we might have hoped. 10k v Scunny, 14k v. WBA. We struggled to 16k v. Turnips and QPR (Boxing Day). Stoke which was played between Christmas and the New Year only attracted 13k ~ even I didn't go to that one but family commitments got in the way and I have seen more than enough of a Pulis team to last me a lifetime. Those poor attendances were to haunt our season and led to seismic repercussions. Holloway banged the drum as much as he could but the crowd figure stayed resolutely low.
Ian Holloway was delighted with yesterdays 3-0 win over Norwich City. "Some of the football we played was terrific," he said. "If Plymouth have ever played better than that, I would have liked to have seen the team and I would like to have seen the game. It was exciting, bright, and we could have run away with even more goals." Lee Martin's overhead kick gave Argyle a half-time lead, before Paul Connolly and David Norris sealed the victory. "Lee scored probably the hardest chance - how he managed to do that, I just don't know," said Holloway. "We missed easier chances than that. Chuck's smashed his in. What a great strike, by the way. Anybody who tells me that boy can't shoot, have a look at that goal. How good is that boy, by the way? Lee Martin, Peter Halmosi, and David Norris - who was back to David Norris today - were absolutely marvellous; Lilian Nalis and everybody. Every one of my players had a good day today. You need that at this level. At Preston nearly every one of them didn't have a good day. But all you can ask is that they learn. I felt we have moved on from last week, when I wasn't happy with the set-piece lapse at all. I thought we could have won last week's game if we had been as focused as we were today, even when we were one-down. We didn't give anything away today - we really didn't - and I didn't think that Sheffield Wednesday were any better than Norwich City - and that's no disrespect to them. I think we have stepped on because we should have won last week like we did today. Sometimes we need to be a bit more clinical, but well done to the lads - some of the football was great and goals change games don't they? We have got a great bunch of lads, as I keep on telling everybody."
The apathy the people of the SW have shown for Argyle this season lies at the heart of much of the chaos that followed. It's fair to say that our results had not helped and that performances at home were not inspiring but the crowd figure stayed low week in and week out. Chairman Stapleton had made noises about the club running at a controlled loss and Holloway's hyperactive media whoredom got us regular press but it still did not attract the stay-away fans through the turnstiles. Something had to give and it did with the sale of Akos Buszaky to QPR. We got £500k for him. His contract was about to expire. He got a big pay rise. Everybody won.
Contrary to public perception, Akos had agreed a deal with Plymouth Argyle on his wages. Then we came across a stumbling block, which was a fee payable to his agent, Sam Stapleton. We weren't willing to pay a substantial amount to the player to pay the agent because the rules are you can't pay agents directly if they are acting for a player. I spoke to Sam Stapleton about it and I told him I didn't think it was right. But, to that, he said Akos had signed a contract with him to say he would have to pay the agent's fee. I rang the manager and he was not happy and did not want to pay it. He had the same view as me but I had to get his view on it." QPR were willing to pay the agent's fee, however, and Buzsaky signed for them instead. Stapleton added: "Akos actually went to QPR and got slightly higher wages, but that wasn't the be-all and end-all of why he went there. I have got emails which say he was happy to sign for us for significantly improved figures, so it's not a question of Plymouth not being prepared to pay enough money." Stapleton, however, insisted he did not hold any grudges against his namesake Sam Stapleton, Buzsaky's agent. "He was the one who brought us Peter Halmosi and Krisztian Timar and I think we did reasonably well in those deals for the football club and those players," he said. "That has worked out very well, so you have to appreciate the fact that you may come across these people again." Stapleton has also wished Buzsaky well for his new career at Loftus Road. He said: "When Akos first came here, I helped him personally. We looked after him because he was a bit lonely. When the other two boys came in he was really, really happy. Now he has gone to QPR and I wish Akos all the best. In the cold light of day, it's a good deal for Akos and it's a good deal for Plymouth Argyle. No-one loses. Everybody's happy and we are all friends."
Well that was how it was sold to the general public but it hid much that was murky. Negotiations had been underway for some time between player and club. The prognosis in the Herald was encouraging. Then it all went sour. Seemingly for no reason at all. It appears that Buzsaky was holding out for a certain amount. Eventually Argyle offered it. Deal done? Not quite. Buzsaky's agent then makes noises about his cut. £35k all told, allegedly, but who was to pay it? League and FA regulations are quite explicit on this count: agents may only represent one party in a deal. Buszaky's agent, Sam Stapleton funnily enough, should therefore have been paid by Buzsaky because that was who he was working for. It seems as though a request went into the club for the money to cover this fee. Holloway said "no". He knew the regulations and there was no way the club could pay it even if they wanted to.
"Take the weekend off and think it over" Buzz was allegedly told. The team set off for Preston without him. Lost 2-0 to a team that could not buy a point at the time and by the time they got back the QPR deal was done, the books were balanced and Buzsaky entered Argyle history which was a relief because I never quite got my head around whether it was "ZS" or "SZ" as you can probably tell!!
This deal split opinion like the departure of a player had never done before. Well not since Mariner left anyway. Was Buzz an expensive liability or the most talented player we had? A bit of both is the truth. He was brought to the club by Bobby Williamson and perhaps needed him to stay to thrive. I think he is a player that needs to be loved and trusted and he was never either, not completely, here. He was in and out of the side under both Pulis and Holloway and his goals per game ratio was not impressive. Sometimes his set piece delivery was brilliant and other times useless. What is Hungarian for "Curate's egg"?
All in all it was a strange and sorry business. Later other details were to emerge via an unprecedented press release from our Stapleton. Ollie did not rate him, he was unpopular in the dressing room and he had to go as a result. This was a bombshell. There had been no inkling that there were issues of this type with Buszaky although there did appear to be conflict between him and Paul Wotton about who should take responsibility for the dead ball specialist spot in the team. Wotton's injury last season put an end to that though. To this day I have heard nothing other than praise for Buszaky as being a most affable sort of chap with a friendly smile and a word for all. Buszaky was hugely popular with fans could it have been that Ollie couldn't bear to play second fiddle to anybody when it came to claiming the affection of the fans? I don't suppose we will ever know for sure. Since joining QPR he has been given their hallowed #10 shirt, relieved of defensive duty and has played in the hole and, natch, scored hundreds of goals for adoring Hoop fans. Why didn't we try that? It was obviously his best position. Hindsight is 20/20 they say.
Ian Holloway has distanced himself from a story in a national newspaper claiming he could be about to quit as Argyle manager. He said: "Ask anybody who knows me how I feel about Plymouth Argyle and they will tell you the truth. If you need me to say it again, I'm in love with the place. It's absolutely magnificent. Ask my players who I'm trying to talk into staying here how Ian Holloway feels about Plymouth Argyle. I think they will tell you the truth. It's all poppycock, if I'm allowed to use that word. It's absolutely pathetic. But the media is a very powerful thing and, unfortunately, a rumour can become a bigger rumour. I don't know how these things get in there, to be perfectly honest with you." Reports also suggested that Holloway was on the short-list to become the new manager of Leicester City. Asked about the story, he replied: "We are playing well and we are winning matches. That's all that matters. If we weren't, nobody would be saying these things anyway. There's not a scrap of truth in any of it. Every time I have wanted a player the Board have bought me one. It's as simple as that. Peter Halmosi was available and were we going to sign him? Yes we did. He was our record signing. We spent £1.1 million last season. If they hadn't bought me a player I would probably be moaning, and the first people I would moan to is them. That's how it is. These things just get totally out of hand and I can't understand it. The answer from me is that it's absolute rubbish. As far as I'm concerned, we are giving it power now by even talking about it. Let's move on. Next question please."
Then one afternoon via a 5LIVE news bulletin the excrement hit the air con. "Holloway to be announced as next Leicester manager". Couldn't be true could it? There had been speculation in the two week break for international matches that he may have been off but Good Old Ollie filled the front page of the Herald. "Poppycock" he thundered. "Complete nonsense!!" Mandaric was even interviewed and said that Holloway was not under consideration. Well that was that. Wasn't it? How could we be so naive as to think so. Mr High Profile dropped off the radar. Speculation mounted. Ollie said nothing. Nothing until the press conference at Leicester when he was unveiled as their new boss.
Milan Mandaric last night denied he is set to appoint Ian Holloway as the new boss of Leicester, and Paul Stapleton also confirmed that the speculation is incorrect. Mandaric said: "There is no truth in the rumour. I haven't contacted Plymouth and he hasn't been in my thoughts about getting the job." Stapleton added: "There is no truth it. I spoke to Ian at lunchtime today about loan transfers and contract talks for other players."
A City seethed in fury and indignation. Ollie had promised. He had given his word. His track record suggested that he a stayer but his actions proved otherwise. There was much rancour and that is putting it mildly. There followed a period where people said things that they quite clearly should not have and it was all played out in the unforgiving glare of the nation's media.
Ian Holloway has resigned as Argyle manager. The club released the following statement: "Plymouth Argyle confirm that Ian Holloway has tendered his resignation as manager of the club. The club has convened a board meeting for Friday this week where this will be considered. In the meantime, Ian continues to be employed by the club and subject to the terms of his contract of employment. No further comment will be made pending the board meeting this Friday.
Ian Holloway has broken his silence over his resignation as Argyle manager. He said: "It's a really difficult situation for myself. I feel like I was getting stereotyped in having no money to spend. I'm sick and fed up of losing my best players all the time because they outgrow what I can pay them, and I'm not sure that will happen at Leicester. It's a whole new role for me and it's something that I don't feel I could turn down. I have worked hard for 11 years and I have always been the bridesmaid, never the bride, to this type of thing. It's a challenge for me, and everybody needs a challenge, but that doesn't belittle the relationships I have had before. I don't know what the people at Plymouth are going to be feeling about me today but I'm ever so sorry. I just felt my heart wasn't there once I knew this might be here. What can I say." Lawyers have spent the morning thrashing out a compensation payment for Holloway, with Argyle thought to want £400,000. He added: "That's beyond me. That's for other people to deal with. All I am is a football manager. The people who are more experienced above me will have to sort that out."
Holloway walked out leaving us in 7th position and Argyle hit a season high in the next match when in a hugely exciting game (for me it was the season highlight) at Sheffield United we triumphed 1-0. Gary Penrice and Des Bulpin had stood in for Ollie and secured a famous win in their only match in charge. Before long they to were off to Leicester as was stand-in captain and Ollie fave Barry Hayles. We even got a fee for him: £100k. Not bad business again really. Then Ollie went Nuclear: "I'm coming back for all of my players" he said and said as though he meant it. Basically a state of war existed between the two clubs.
18 December: Leicester boss Ian Holloway attacks reports that he's using the press to unsettle Plymouth's Barry Hayles. 'I don't like it: it's very damaging. I was proud of what I did at Plymouth, and very proud of the Plymouth fans, so I'm not going to raid their team. I'm looking at other targets.' 1 January: Signs Barry Hayles for £150k. 'I'm absolutely delighted!'
Still every cloud has a silver lining and when one door shuts another opens and Paul Sturrock was appointed in place of Holloway. He left Swindon and came back to Plymouth and brought with him a couple of familiar faces in the shape of Kevin Summerfield and John Blackley. Could the events unfold and actually leave us in a stronger position? No. Further departures were on the way and the heart was about to be ripped out of the Argyle squad. Dan Gosling, our best youngster was off to Everton for £1.5m. Sylvain Ebanks-Blake was off to Wolves for a similar amount and Club Hero And Legend David Norris was off to Ipswich for £3m. Never had so much cash poured into the coffers. Never was so much angst portrayed amongst the support. We even lost Romain Larrieu at this time too due to a sad reoccurrence of his testicular cancer problems. Everywhere you looked there was disaster. It was carnage. Even supporters of other teams noticed what was happening and were wondering why we were selling everybody.
Paul Sturrock made his return to Home Park today, and has no doubt that what lies ahead of him is as tough as it gets. "This will be the hardest job I've ever had to take over," he said, "but I am very, very pleased and looking forward to the challenge." Argyle’s current situation is a far cry from the positions Sturrock has found himself in when appointed to his previous jobs. He said: "The bottom has been out of most of the clubs' trousers as far as the position they are in the league - all of a sudden, I'm taking over a team that's fourth in the Championship and flying. It's a difficult one. I do feel I have taken a difficult job because of the expectation-level. Plus, there's also the old onion that you should never go back to try again. But I feel very comfortable with coming back. I think I can fit right back in again, and the chairman and I have a relationship that means I am looking forward to working with him again. I'm just hoping to be honest, to make sure supporters know where I'm coming from." It is 1,363 days since Sturrock left Home Park and now he is back, he is aiming to complete unfinished business. "There was no way I would have left for any other standard than the Premier League," he said. "I've been to the Show. I've had a wee taste. I've pitted my wits against the top men. I think everybody has that ambition in them. Had it been even another Championship team, I wouldn't even have contemplated leaving because I have a dream for this football club, a long-term dream to take it where it would like to go. From then on, politics has been very much a part of my problems at every football club. The one good thing that I have done since I've been away is that I pride myself that I have left teams I took over in a better shape than when I took them over. So, at least I've done a professional job at every club. At Southampton, I had Rupert Lowe, who things didn't work out with; at Sheffield Wednesday, I got promotion and then had a taste of the naughty side of football. Then, at Swindon, it's been very zany, getting promotion and then having four months of turmoil when people have been taking over the football club, then not taking over the football club. Finances were very low, there was an embargo of players so you can't sign anyone - then, you wake up last Sunday and, lo and behold, we're three points outside of the play-offs. It's been hard, hard, work, but very pleasing work, but I pride myself that I and my coaches have done the job asked of us at the football club. It's really been off the park that the problems have been at the three clubs I have been since." Argyle have agreed a compensation package with Swindon, not only for Sturrock, but also Kevin Summerfield and John Blackley, and Sturrock is delighted to keep his team together. "They have done a fantastic job," he said. "I can trust them, and leave them to it because I know they are going to do things to the standard I would expect. Summers has got all the badges, now; Sloop has got all the experience, so it's worked very, very well. It's like what's happening on the football pitch - why break it when it's working?" When asked whether he will ever be a Premiership manager again, Sturrock replied. "That's what we're down here for. At the end of the day, we're going to have a go. I can't promise you anything, but I can assure you that everybody on the staff will be working towards that. With the backing of the fans, which has always been fantastic, and the attitude and work-rate of the players, and a very strange league - everybody seems to beat everybody else - if we can turn the home form to be a real fortress, and continue the way the team is playing away from home, who knows what we can achieve?" Paul Sturrock believes Argyle fans should forget about the nature of Ian Holloway’s departure, and appreciate his legacy. He said: "The important thing is that he did a fantastic job here. There's no doubt about it. You just have to look at the squad of players he assembled. You just have to look at where we are at this moment in time." Sturrock has no intention of changing much. "Players can carry on doing what they have been doing," he said. "Why break up something that's working? I'll be indebted to Crudgie to tell me what their basic week is and we'll just go down the road of that until it doesn't work. But there'll be no dramatic changes to what the players have been used to doing. It seems to be working. There seems to be a good spirit among the players, I'm told, so that's great and there's a work-ethic. All the things I like about a football team seem to be being generated here. The manager before me has left a good taste in the mouth as far as performances are concerned and the standard of play at the club. I'm not going to change anything of that." Paul Sturrock believes that his relationship with Paul Stapleton is the key to Argyle's continued success. "The chairman, the board, and I will have to sit down and discuss all that," he said. "I am a great believer in long-term plans for the simple reason that everybody then knows where we are coming from. We went on a five-year plan when Paul first took over, and they have achieved that - to win two promotions and then solidify yourselves in the Championship was something special. The three managers since me have done a fantastic job in allowing that five-year plan to work. Every time I've had a successful relationship with a chairman, I've had a successful team. At St Johnstone, I had five years, played in Europe and played in a cup final, and that was with a great relationship with the chairman. The first year at Sheffield Wednesday was very pleasing, and I had a great relationship with the chairman. Even at Swindon, things worked out very well. It's just that this take-over business, and lack of finances, has really affected the club. Paul and I don't see eye to eye on everything - he has an opinion and I have - but we know what direction we want the football club to be going in and we both want to achieve that: he through off-the-park activities and me on the park."
The personnel changes were not all one way. There was the arrival of Steve MacLean for a new club record fee of £500k; Yoann Folly for £200k; Chris Clark for £200k; Patterson for £250k; Jamie Mackie for £150k. Gary Teale, Russell Anderson and Lukas Jutkiewicz arrived on loan to boost numbers and options too. Hectic times.
Jamie Mackie finally became an Argyle player yesterday after weeks of negotiation. "I am absolutely delighted to sign for Plymouth," he said. "It has gone on a lot time. I knew about the interest a while ago and I am so grateful for the chance to be here. I want to improve, get my head down and get in the team. I respect the rivalry is there but Plymouth are in the Championship and I am ambitious. As soon as I knew there might be a chance of me playing for Plymouth, it was all I wanted. All I saw was that Plymouth are a Championship and not that they are Exeter's rivals. Exeter gave me the chance to improve my game and I am grateful to everyone for the help they have given me." Mackie will have to wait for his debut because he is cup-tie, and added: "I have already played in the FA Cup, so I am cup-tied. I will get some work done this weekend while the lads are travelling and be ready for the next game. I can't wait. I know I have got to improve my game and that is why I am here. Everyone wants to be in the first-team and I want to show people what I am about. At this level there is going to be competition for places but I want to work with those players and learn from them." The Championship will be the place where Mackie will be looking to impress. He last played at this level with Wimbledon as a 19 year-old in 2004. He said: "I was put in the first-team at Wimbledon very young. I have had to take a few steps backwards before getting where I want to be and this is where I want to be. It was the right time to move on. Ever since I got to Exeter, I have said I wanted to move back to this level."
January (LWLDLD against Cardiff, Hull (FA Cup), Burnley, Southampton, Pompey (Cup again) and Ipswich where MacLean missed apenalty) was a disaster and frankly awful performances at Burnley and Cardiff matched the one earlier in the season at Preston for apparent hopelessness but was that not altogether surpising given the upheaval amongst personnel and the health scare to Larrieu which was just the cherry on top, really. If you are a manager then I guess you learn far more in bad times than you do in good and Luggy's learning curve must have been more or less vertical at this stage as we slumped to . February arrived and we won 4 in a row. We were back up to and hope, as ever sprung eternal with the prospect of the new players bedding in and Luggy instilling the virtues we knew so well from his first spell here. Indeed the first signs of recovery were there at Pompey where we narrowly and undeservedly lost. The stand out player that day was Pompey's Diarra who was recently signed for £6m from Arsenal and was paid £50k/week. If you pay for quality you get quality I guess and he was superb ~ that said he contributed to Pompey losing £30m over the season!! Maybe if we went £30m over budget we could do what they did and get to the FA Cup Final...
Then our best run of 4 wins was bookended by hugely disappointing defeats at home to Hull and away at WBA. What about those 4 wins though!! Leicester (won away for the first time ever), Southampton (first away win since 1963) and Burnley... There must be a word for it somewhere after all the history between us and them. I'll just go for "sweet". The other win was against Barnsley.
Time to take a step back here. I have blamed the poor attendances on our poor home showing. Well even with mediocre displays and iffy results we had hung in there just about all season. How? Well there was an almost unmatched set of away wins to celebrate. Apart from those already mentioned we won at all of the Premier League relegatees Sheffield United (first away win there since 1938), Watford and Charlton (first win there since 1974) despite their reputations, star names and parachute payments. Watford ended up play off candidates as did Hull (we won there too), The Turnips (another away win and the first since 1931) and Palace (we lost there but beat 'em at home).
The away win at Bristol City saw the return of Paul Wotton to the starting XI after a long period out through injury. Little did we know at the time that that would be the last Great Occasion that he was to be a part of as a Pilgrim. That was just one cameo amongst many others. There was the Rory Fallon rebirth after the speculation linking him to Southend; Kristain Timar's Player Of The Season award was well deserved after a succession of fine performances; Timar's horrific injury; Halmosi's brilliance and consistency; Jamie Mackie's effervescence; Holloway's book; the Youth Team's Cup Run; Dan Gosling in the u-17 World Cup; Marcel Seip's excellence, ambition for next season and eventual incredible truculence; SEB's court case; Jermaine easter signing; Leicester's eventual relegation...
Back to the run-in to the season: inconsistency and disappointment reigned as we took a step forward and two steps back. The sequence of results went like this: WLLLWDLLLDWL (Colchester, Sheffield United, Scunny, Turnips, Watford, Cov, Charlton,Wednesday,PNE, Blackpool and Wolves) which gave us only 11 points from the last 36. Unbelieveably we were still in with a chance to go up until that late Preston equaliser. Somehow it was apt that our demise should be confirmed in this way at Home Park. It was horribly appropriate and it was at Home Park that we let ourselves down all season.
You look back at the season and wonder at what just might have been. The early run of home draws; losing at home to Wednesday; Timar's crazy 15 minutes again at home against the Turnips; the penalty miss at Ipswich; dominating at home against Hull and losing 1-0 to their only (mishit) shot of the game; Watford's gamesmanship and Halmosi's red card and injury; The Super One's brainstorm when losing 2-1 at home to 10 man Charlton after being 1 up and playing 10 men for the whole match; PNE's equaliser with the last kick of the game... We really were that close. We could even have won the league had all of the crucial moments gone our way. But they did not. The league does not lie and 10th represents a fair final league position.
Still the bombshells kept exploding. As the season wound down Luggy released Paul Wotton, Lee Hodges, Lilian Nalis and Nick Chadwick. Paul Connolly refused a new deal and is off on a Bosman. In one way or another I'm sad to see them all go. Paul Wotton... what can you say? The thought of him playing elsewhere is hard to grasp. It's just wrong. On the other hand I can understand the reasons why they are all going. I can't bring myself to say a bad word about any of them. Good luck, guys, in all that you do. And thanks.
Which leaves the future. I'm not sure there is room for a "What Next?" in a season review such as this but there does appear to be progress off the pitch. The first glimmer came when Plymouth Council Leader Vivian Pengelly announced that Argyle could build a hotel on their land. This seemed to come right out of left field. A hotel? What was she on about? Further investigation revealed that PCC had commissioned a feasiblity study into including a hotel in their Life Centre project but had taken their plans no further. Now the hotel was back on the agenda. Was this how the club was to capitalise through having bought the freehold? PAFC could sell off a plot of pot-holed car park and nobody would mind but if PCC built over one blade of grass the Central Park lobby would rebel and politically it is just not an option.
A hotel would sit nicely adjacent to a nice new South Stand (as the P2 development seems to have been renamed), a new swimming and diving complex, a new ice rink and a new multi-sport centre to replace the existing facilities which need expensive repair or are in the way of the bigger urban regeneration project that will transform Millbay and if the hotel releases funds that enable P2 to be completed then all is well and good as far as I can see.
The last development off the pitch is the appointment of Yasuaki Kagami to the board. He appears to be a wealthy and welcome addition who may offer opportunities to the club that we have never before considered. His plans seem to be realistic and sensible and are not concerned with simply pumping money into the team in the hope of a quick fix.
"The future's not ours to see" as Doris Day once sang in a tune known to football fans everywhere and all will be revealed in the fullness of time. I think only one thing is certain: the eventfulness (is that a word?) of this season will never be matched again ~ or at least it was never matched in the past.
I'll give the very last word to the Green Army (do not activate if easily offended):
There is a pub in there somewhere amongst the gloom!!
Several beers had been sampled before we went there so the number of photos taken on the night is a bit scant. I did realise that on the evening and managed to get a couple before we left. This is a shot of the interior of the main part of the pub devoid of punters and ready for bed just as is the right thing at the end of the day. There is something kind of quaint and touching about this. In this day and age of relaxed opening hours there are basically no restrictions on when pubs can open and "closing time" isn't the death knell to an evening that it once was. This actually surprises me. If I was to nominate a pub on Mutley Plain as one likely to stay open late then it would be this one. It would seem to me to be in-keeping with the type of pub that it is and the type of customer that it attracts. If this was a film the screen would now go all wibbly wobbly and there would be the sound of hands being drawn across harp stings before we emerge in a different place altogether. That place being the past.
I can't speak for the deepest recesses of history but I can go back to the early '80s and that is tantamount to the same thing. Youngsters who stumble across this blog may be surprised to hear that at one time there was just 3 pubs along the whole of Mutley Plain. They were the Hyde Park at the, er, Hyde Park end of the Plain and the Nottingham at the other (now called The Junction and rebranded as The Freebooter during a brief Firkinisation) and the Fortescue. It's hard to believe now but that was once all there was.
The Fortescue used to have a small front bar behind which was a larger back bar. It was an odd sort of a pub with an eclectic clientele in those days. It had the reputation as being Plymouth's first Gay Pub, for a start. I had friends who just would not go there!! I don't know if it was or whether it was not because I rarely went there myself as a result and if I ever did drink on Mutley then I went to the Hyde Park not least because it was closest to where I lived.
Heading further back into the past as we like to do on occasion when the evidence is there for us we can guess that this building was built in 1905. Rather conveniently it is dated on the exterior!! I suppose that means that the rest of the Plain was built then too. There is also some rather retro exterior detail in the guise of the lamps outside. Now I might be odd but these lamps brought back to me one of my earliest memories as a kid growing up in Peverell in the '60s. I actually remember the gas light man!! Only vaguely but I do remember him. I'm sure our back lane had old fashioned gas powered lamops and they used to be manually lit every day. I guess they were manually extinguished too but I do not remember that. This seems very odd to me. Surely that sort of thing was done away with long before? If it was not then why on Earth do I remember it? Anyway I was intrigued enough to photograph the inside of the lantern housing. Was this gas powered? Was it a remnant of the past? I don't know. I do know it had a bulb inside it now though.
The Gas Man memory is weird. It fascinates me. I'm not sure it's even a real memory ~ it is certainly very vague. I have another memory from way back then and that is of a woman with a pram who used to walk the back lanes calling out "Rags Sell!!" I'm not sure whether she was buying or selling rags; both probably. You just don't get stuff like that anymore just like you do not ever see a bloke with a cart that goes from street to street sharpening knives on a grinding wheel. It's funny how times change. What are the equivalents these days?
[wibbly wobbly and more harp music back to the present]
Somewhere along the way the inside got altered. The front bar was knocked into the back bar and the layout that we see today emerged. One thing that has stayed with the pub is it's eclectic clientele. This place just could not be more different to the almost adjacent Mutley Crown. No big screens for a start. If you want to watch sport then don't bother trying to do it here. Whereas the Mutley Crown is a Fun Pub sort of place this is a more traditional kind of spit and sawdust studenty, counter-culture kind of bar. I'm not saying that this is a good or a bad thing. It doesn't bother me at all and if I was to choose a local along the Plain these days it would be this one. It is a proper kind of traditional pub with no pretensions that it is anything else. That kind of does it a disservice though. The Fort has long since been the only home in Plymouth to the mighty ale known as "Spingo". This may be a new one to most. Spingo is a real ale and it is made at the Blue Anchor down in Helston. There are 3 versions but I forget the names now. "Middle" is one of them and, somewhat confusingly, it is the weakest. "Weakest" in this context should be treated with considerable caution. Any Spingo is stronger than most beers. It is serious stuff and once a year there is a coach run down to Helston just to go to the Blue Anchor. If you ever go down there it is well worth a visit. I have done this a couple of times and it is a day out not for the faint-hearted. Anyway Spingo is just one real ale and there is always a selection of different ones on offer here and there is a a Real Ale Festival coming up over the months of April and May.
I'm not sure as to the food on offer here. I know they do a Sunday Roast but I have never eaten here ~ it doesn't strike me as a foody pub and there was no menu on show when I was there. If you do want to eat something there is a pizza take away next door. One of the pubs good features is that even when it is busy you always seem to get served quite quickly. That was as true the night we were there as any other.
Still time to come to an end with another admission of a little deceit that I have used here. That evening I lost my mobile phone. Well I didn't actually. It was at home all along but for a while it was presumed lost. I went back to ask if it was there and it was not. Whilst there I took the pictures that are in daylight. That is the deceit. Some of the photos were taken the day after. It was a bit of luck that I did really. I spotted this graffiti on the back wall:
Art or vandalism? I have to admit I rather like such things although I'm happy enough to admit that I would be less than pleased if it got sprayed on the wall of my property, I guess. Still I think it brightens the place up.
I'm glad I did or else I would have forgotten to add that the Fortescue has the biggest and best, not that that says much, beer garden of any of the Mutley pubs and I was preparing to photograph this too when a group of 4 kids came past. "Why are you photographing that?" the girl asked. So I explained as briefly as possible. "Will you take our picture, mister?" So I did. I didn't realise at the time quite what poses they had adopted but the resultant picture makes me laugh so here it is:
Finally a pub with a picture of Muttley on the outside cannot be a bad thing!!
Since I took the photographs of the Hyde Park the scaffolding has been removed to reveal a rather tasteful exterior paint job. It looks far better than it did although the inside remains the same.
Anybody interested in the write-ups may like to know that since I wrote about the Butchers Arms the most expensive flat yet has been sold by Urban Splash as part of the RWY development. It went for a cool £1.2m.
I really must apologise for being so slow to post this but I have been contacted by a Mr Cleeve of Reigate who either Photoshopped a forgery or actually did download the screen image and claimed the 6000th hit.
Congrats to him and if he can send me the screen dump again, and perhaps a photograph of himself, he can be the first entrant into the most exclusive club on the net ~ Friends Of Serendipity.
Once upon a time Mutley Plain was a very different place to the one it is today. It has always been the last stop before town but back along it used to be a real shopping destination in it's own right. There was all sorts of shops here and many thriving small businesses of many types. Sadly many of those have now gone and what remains is a load of bars, pizza take aways, lots of pizza take aways, some other fast food outlets a(but no McDonalds beccause the resident traders do not want the competition and somehow manage to get their way) and several charity shops. It is but a relic of the commercial area of old. The Mutley Crown reflects this as it used to be a Lexterten showroom before it became a pub (Lexterten was a furniture retailers and sold beds, sofas and the like ~ it's hard to picture such a shop on Mutley these days). Still it's been a pub for several years now and, the odd name change along the way, now sits resplendent on the sunny side of Mutley Plain at the town end.
Here's a map of it in relation to Argyle (if you click on the image it will enlarge as will all of the pictures) ~ it's a 1.3 mile journey apparently. We used to go here for pre-match drinks a while back and, to be honest, it ticked all of the right boxes in terms of our various requirements. It is quite a big pub, as you would expect from an old furniture showroom, and has plenty of tables to sit at. There is also a fairly large floor area which serves as a dance floor for those who wish to do such things of an evening. There are tellies all over the place so you can see one from anywhere and at the back of the bar there is a large screen. You are right in the heart of a busy area too so there is a definite pre-match buzz to the place.
This is a rare occasion though and we went to this pub to see the Sky-televised game against Sheffield Wednesday so this is a bit of a cheat but with the season coming to a close it's necessary to take the odd liberty or else I won't have anything to write about for a while and this seemed like too good an opportunity to miss. The place was well-geared up for the match.As already said there were tellies all over the place and, quite thoughtfully really, they had even set aside an area where you could watch the Chelsea game on Setanta if you wanted to but from what I could see nobody did. Another triumph of organisation was the piping of commentary through the pub's sound system (there are advantages to Fun Pub-type places after all then) and you could see and hear the game with no problems at all. Added to which if there is a prize for displaying Argyle memorabilia in a pub then bedecking the window with flags advertising that they will be showing a game on TV must get top marks.
The bar staff were great too. Craig and Hannah (pictured) were there when I arrived and were augmented by 2 or 3 others as the evening progressed. There was no difficulty in getting served and the price of the drinks (Guinness was £2.78/pint and all draught beers were available in 4 pint jugs ~ hic!) was even quite reasonable compared to some places. Being an evening nobody seemed to be eating and it was a bit worrying that the bar staff got a pizza delivered for themselves but there was a menu on display that offered rudimentary food.
A relic of this pub's past and it's design as a shop and not a pub was the positioning of the toilets. Quite simply they are miles away from the bar and up a flight of stairs or two. Also up these stairs is an entrance to the roof garden!! I have been in this pub lots of times and I didn't even realise that there was one. Naturally during halftime there was a load of smokers out there getting their fix.The only thing about this pub that causes concern is the CCTV. It depends on what your views on such things is I suppose and if you are doing no wrong then there is nothing to worry about but there either is, or will be, 36 separate security cameras scattered around the place and, perhaps not surprisingly, the pub has just gone into new management and is now owned by Universal Security. Confession time now: I did not stumble across the roof garden purely by chance ~ I had seen it on the monitor behind the bar.
If you can live with the cameras then this really is a very good place to meet at and to watch football in. I don't think there is much to add other than that there is also a couple of pool tables and that this is the first pub that I have featured that has it's own website: http://www.mutleycrown.co.uk/ and that it has a pirate on the roof. Now why didn't I take a photo of that?
"There is a house in New Orleans that they call The Rising Sun..."
It's a great song ain't it? One that I first heard as part of the soundtrack album to the David Essex film Stardust back in the mid '70s (possibly the greatest film soundtrack ever by the way and well worth tracking down for a smorgasboard of '60s classics). Sometime later I saw the video that was made to accompany it and which, come to think of it, must have been one of the very first ever made to promote a song in the way so familiar to the post-MTV generation. Alan Price's organ sound on it is just superb as is the impassioned vocal by Eric Burdon. Even today it's a classic and has not, to these ears become clichéd in any sense of the word. The song has lent this pub a fascination to me and has for the last 30 years or so. Sadly the pub does not repay the legacy of the song in any way at all.
But it does have it's pub sign still which is A Very Good Thing. It is another pub with a family connection, too. My parents helped to run it for several years leading up to and following the death of the landlady, Winnie Woodford, some years ago after a long battle against cancer. They did it as a favour to Jack, who was the landlord and Winnie's husband who had been a close friend to my father for many years.
Subsequently upon his death, in similar circumstances to his wife ~ don't smoke, kids, it's no good for you ~ the pub was sold and my family connection ended. The pub had been offered for sale to my father who did not want to buy it due to his advancing years. I wish he had mentioned it to me at the time as the price was very, and I mean very, favourable and as a cold business decision it could hardly have gone wrong. I'm sure something could have been arranged. That said I like a beer and being in charge of a pub might demand self-control levels that I just do not possess!! Still it's all history and I suspect that I'll never find out now. Since then the pub has been through several landlords. Nobody seems to stay long which is odd. I guess the brewery's terms are not very friendly and the rent is high.
So I know rather more about this pub than most and it ought to be one of Plymouth's "goldmine" pubs. It has a great reputation, it is ideally located on a main road, there is a couple of other pubs nearby which complement it and they actually provide a kind of symbiotic support to one another rather than outright competition and it is in the middle of a vast section of Plymouth's domiciliary hinterland. I hesitate to use the word "estate" since that implies council house domination and this is very much an owner-occupier neighbourhood and Higher Compton is as safe a Tory ward in the local elections as there is. Get the Tory nomination here and you have a job for life. Make no mistake this is one of the most middle-class areas of Plymouth and bears no comparison at all with the adjacent Efford which is chalk to Higher Compton's cheese, as it were, and it's sole pub, The Royal Marine, has long since been burned to the ground.
I have a friend named Rick Wilson who used to co-own the local Summerskills micro-brewery and he used to sagely mutter "chimney pots" whenever asked about pub potential. "Count the chimney pots" he'd say. Well there is literally thousands of them around here stretching out in all directions and in the main they are owned and not rented . "Location, location, location..." as The Wise Man once said. If you go wrong running this pub then you should not be running a pub. Located but a short walk from The Bluebird The Rising Sun has a Methodist chapel as a next-door neighbour on one side and a real honest, old-fashioned hardware shop (one of the most useful shops in Plymouth, I reckon) on the other. Being Easter Saturday the church had a sign outside it to advertise Easter (I guess some people must be very forgetful). "It's a sign!!" I joked (well it was a sign, quite literally)and later that afternoon Jermaine Easter scored the first goal of the game. If I was a betting man then my money would surely have been on him as first goalscorer. The church is another factor that brings in regular trade. I know that for a fact because I got married in that chapel 13 years ago and met up with friends and family in the pub beforehand. One thing that I do recall about that lunchtime, apart from the pain from my ribs which had been broken on my Stag Night, was going to the loo just prior to going to the church for the ceremony. On arrival at the church one of Mrs B's friends, Maddie, pointed out to me that I was "flying low" as it were. I'm glad she did. It wouldn't have looked too good in the wedding photos would it?
As to the pub itself there is a small beer garden at the back which used to have Koi carp in the pond, I wonder if it still does? The garden was inhabited by smokers satisfying their craving as is their want in nearly every pub in the land these days. At the front there is a small car park which has had a table and benches installed in recent years and so is now virtually useless for parking cars in. Inside it is now a single bar pub and the wall which used to divide the Lounge and the Public Bar has been demolished. Happily the PB has been upgraded rather than the Lounge down-graded and it is rather pleasant in a traditional sort of way. It almost feels rather like a "country pub" as opposed to a "town" one which the nearby Bluebird undoubtedly is. As we walked we were assaulted by the unmistakable aroma of ascetic acid ~ vinegar!! How the place reeked of it!! Pubs shouldn't smell like that. They should be smoky and faintly redolent of stale beer, brasso and table polish all tinged with a hint of aftershave (if it's a weekend evening) and/or ladies' perfume (any evening or special occasion). The smoking ban has runed this. Nothing hides the rather unpleasant concoction of smells that can accumulate where men, mostly, gather to drink and the vinegar that beset the senses here was not pleasant. Obviously food was an option but I did not notice a menu and nobody was eating (so where did that vinegar smell come from?).
The "Lounge" area was obviously set aside for meals and was occupied by a few elderly people who were scattered around. They seemed to have positioned themselves with random precision so that they were all as far apart from one another as they could be. They were a probability density function in human form!! I can't say that it seemed especially welcoming and although there was sign outside proclaiming that "Sky TV Was Here!" there was no TV. There was a middle-aged woman behind the bar that did not seem to want to be there and who added little that was enjoyable to the experience of being there. There was a TV in the "Public Bar" side but it was not tuned to the Spurs match that was being played. Nor was it tuned to SSN. It was on switched on although it may as well not have been. I'm not sure how to say this but it was showing bloody ice skating. Well wrap me in bacofoil and call me ovenready if you like but that's just unacceptable... Ice skating!! Strange. Even now some time later I can't quite get my head around it. "I'm just off to The Sun, love. I don't want to miss the ice skating. I hope those pesky Romanian judges don't screw it up like they did last time...".
The ice skating apart as a pub they obviously do make some effort to entertain the punters though. There was a sign advertising a quiz night which is held every Monday (I like that sort of thing and wholeheartedly approve) and another publicising a Christian Sleep gig on the Thursday and it seems as though every Thursday is Music Night. Thursday night has always been a good night to go out in Plymouth. It always used to be payday for those on a weekly wage at the dockyard and so Thursdays were a bit special. I suppose the Music Night on a Thursday is a hangover from those days when the entire city was dominated by the rhythms of the dockyard hooter and shipwrights and others spoke of "back shift" and played endless hands of euchre. Still just as South Yorkshire and South Wales have lost their indigenous industries and main employers so the 'yard is now a shadow of what it once was when every family, my own included, had at least one yardie in it and schools focussed on the dockyard exam just as much as they did "O" Levels and CSEs. Those schools were the forerunners of today's vocational academies so beloved of New Labour really!! Is every city like this? Are we to be totally reliant on foreign employers and service industries for ever more? It does look that way. Still back to Christian Sleep... He has a website and you can listen, for free, to his CD The Moment Of Clarity there. It's not half bad either and I might just be tempted to catch him live one day.
Anyway time was our enemy and just as there was just the merest suggestion that a pre-match buzz was building and obvious clutches of people were meeting up for the game we had to leave. We had arranged to meet others at the Golden Hind (already reviewed). To be honest the overall experience had been quite underwhelming, although beermats on the tables were most welcome ~ why do so few pubs put them out these days? ~ so we drank up and left.
The Bluebird is the closest pub to my parents' house so I noticed something about it that others may not: here's something missing from this pub ~ no pub sign. There used to be one. It showed a painting of Sir Malcolm Campbell's land speed record breaking car of the same name and the fact that it is missing is a little sad. I wonder where it has gone? I guess the name must date the building of the pub, too. Campbell was the first man to break 300 mph and set a new land speed record at the Bonneville salt flats in Utah way back in 1935 and in doing so cemented his place in British lore as a lengendary, and classic stiff upper-lipped, National Hero. He got a pub named after him (or his car at least) anyway!!
Altogether Campbell set 9 Land Speed Records before his death in 1949:
25th September 1924 (Pendine Sands) 146.16 mph
21st July 1925 (Pendine Sands) - 150.766mph
4th February 1927 (Pendine Sands) - 174.88mph,
12th February 1928 (Daytona Beach, Florida) - 206.95mph,
5th February 1931 (Daytona Beach) - 246.09mph,
24th February 1932 (Daytona Beach) - 253.96mph,
22nd February 1933 (Daytona Beach) - 272.46mph,
7th March 1935 (Daytona Beach) - 276.71,
3rd September 1935 (Bonneville Salt Flats, Utah) - 301.12mph.
The final version was 28 feet long and weighed 5 tons!! It is massive and if you are ever in the New Forest I heartily recommend a trip to The National Motor Museum to see it. It's a wondrous thing of great beauty and it's shape is echoed in many designs emanating from that era. It really is a design classic in it's own right and looks totally unlike any modern vehicle.
The baton was picked up by his son Donald. Who set several new records himself and was the first to break 400 mph on land and 200mph on water:
LAND:
July 1964: Lake Eyre, Australia. (403.1 m.p.h.)
WATER:
July 1955: Ullswater, Cumbria. (202.32 m.p.h.)
November 1955: Lake Mead, U.S.A. (216.2 m.p.h.)
September 1956: Coniston Water, Cumbria. (225.63 m.p.h.)
November 1957: Coniston Water, Cumbria. (239.07 m.p.h.)
November 1958: Coniston Water, Cumbria. (248.62 m.p.h.)
May 1959: Coniston Water, Cumbria. (260.33 m.p.h.)
December 1964: Lake Dumbleyung, Australia (276.33 m.p.h.)
His story had a tragic end with his death on Coniston Water when he crashed at a speed of over 300 mph. The boat was salvaged and his remains finally found in 2001.
I'm sorry about the song. It's awful but the video is good. Watch it with the sound down is my advice.
Still none of that tells you anything at all about the pub. It is under new management and it's about a 2 mile walk to the ground from here and to be honest he bus link isn't much good so a taxi could be in order if you overstay and overdo it. It's quite handily located for access from the A38 and sits right next to a #28 bus stop. It is also located rather handily next door to a Friary Mill Bakery which gives it much credence as a pasty buying opportunity. For those so inclined there is a Bookmakers across the road too. Generally speaking gambling isn't for me though. You can either win (in which case you always wish you had staked more) or lose (in which case you wish you hadn't bothered) ~ either way the end result frustrates.
As you go through the door to the bar you might notice the number of signs on it. It must have more than any other pub door in the city (watch this space!!). Is there anybody left who needs to see a "No Smoking" sign as they go into a pub these days? Well if they do then there are 3 here. Count 'em!! The pub itself it opens out into what is essentially a large roughly horseshoe-shaped bar with the Lounge area to the left and the Public Bar to the right although there is no division between the two sections. The pub is a bit like the Golden Hind in terms of it's character and function. It doesn't excite or inspire but it serves it's function well. It's a largish pub with a small beer garden at the back. It serves bar food which includes Hingstons Pasties (which are very nice and, in my opinion, far better than the ones from next door) and bacon butties.
What can I say about the evening? Wonderful. Just wonderful. I left the gig with a huge smile on my face, swathed in good vibes and wanting to just give the whole world a cuddle despite a rather uncompromising conclusion to the show. That should not have been entirely unexpected: Jonathan Richman does not tend to do "compromise".
Jonathan famously grew up around the area that spawned The Velvet Underground. Completely unknown outside local circles they inspired a very young Jonathan and informed his earliest recordings. His first ever vynyl release was simply entitled The Modern Lovers and the influences on it are as clear as day. If you like The Velvets then you will simply adore this album. Notable tracks on it are Astral Plane and Pablo Picasso but it's all killer and no filler.
The song Pablo Picasso is a pivotal one in his reprtoire and was the first time that a certain quirky humour surfaced alongside the Velvetian rhythms. It was the quirkiness and humour that was to go on to define much of his later output although the rhythmic simplicity is also an underlying feature. It was as a result of the stripped down nature of his music accompanied by a fairly relentlessly industrial throb that has led him to be described as The Godfather Of Punk. I think is is a bit strong, to be honest, but the "I could do that" nature of his beginnings in homage to the velvets and the subsequent simplicity of much of his music definitely deserves a mention in this context ~ we are not talking about an approach that Emmerson, Lake & Palmer would ever have considered here.
The childlike nature of much of his output is shocking, truly shocking to some adult ears. "Who is this bloke?" and "What is he on?" are questions often asked, not unreasonably, by those that encounter his music for the first time. Some will just reject it out of hand. Some will embrace it. It's those who take the music for what it is that will gain the most and those who reject it will never know what they are missing out on. There is nothing hidden, there are no allusions to profundity or politics. What there is is simple honesty and no little insight into life itself. I can't emphasis the "simple" enough. It is another facet to his music which can make people reject him and his approach. For him no emotion is too personal to be explored, no feeling is out of bounds. Some look at his songs and are repelled by what they may feel is arch, mawkish sentiment. Well that is exactly what is is for the best part but where most run away from such things Jonathan just rushes over and gives it all a metaphorical great big hug. He quite simply could not be an Englishman it just isn't in our national psyche to be quite as brash about our deepest and most personal thoughts, feelings and emotions. You may hate what he does but what he does is done with absolute and complete sincerity and conviction.
I have been fortunate enough to see him in concert once before. That was in the late '80s (I can't be sure of the year) at Elephant Fayre which was a mini-Glastonbury type festival held at St German's in SE Cornwall. I remember the gig quite well. Iwas sharing a flat with a mate called Meaks at the time. He was with me and his girlfriend, Mary, was there too. Jonathan was on the afternoon. He turned up with a couple of backing musicians: there was a stand up bass player and a lady backing singer. That was it. No drums or other backing. If any percussion was needed then he either stamped on the stage or tapped the body of his guitar to provide it. What followed was unknown, to me ~ then, songs all delivered in the simplest Rock n Roll style that you could imagine. Wonderful. If ever a time or a venue was right for his song That Summer Feeling then that was it. I was utterly transformed and carried away to a better place. Meaks hated it. Mary, who had never heard of him before that day, became an instant fan. There in a nutshell you have him and the effect that he has on people.
The sperm joke was nothing to do with him (he would never be so crude) but it helped sell the Farelly Brothers' film. They are huge fans of his and used him through the film to link transitional parts of the film with songs; one performed with Jonathan up a tree, like you do, I remember. Think of the cockerel troubadour in Disney's Robin Hood and you aren't far off.
My mate Graham and I went. On arrival we discovered that we had missed the every start of the gig, which was down to London traffic and the scarcity of available parking in the Shepherd's Bush area but never mind. The Empire is a typical old fashioned London venue. Obviously it was a conventional theatre rather than a concert venue and it was far smaller than expected. On entry we were immediately confronted by a bar. Ordinarily this is no bad thing but it ran all of the way across the back of the hall and in front of it was a seated area. I couldn't see but I assume there was a "Gods" section above us too. Capacity of the venue? I'd put it at about 1500. All in all quite an intimate arena and well-suited to this particular performer.
Physically Jonathan looks exactly as he has for the duration of his career to this point ~ there must be a picture ageing horribly in an attic somewhere as Jonathan's youth springs eternal.
There was real love and affection in the theatre for him. This was the only show in the UK and he had only just arrived, by train, from Barcelona and was off, via train again so he said, to Dublin. I guess he must have a real fear of flying. I suppose it is also fair to assume that everybody that was there would be a real die hard fan of his music and if you were a fan in the UK then there is only one place to have been last night and that was at the Shepherd's Bush Empire. In passing it has to be noted that he obvious has some celebrity fans. I was stood next to comedian Rich Hall (I mean right next to) and bumped into Adrian Edmondson, too. I spoke to him "Are you Adrian Edmondson?" "Yes." "I've come all the way from Devon, too." I couldn't think of anything similarly brilliant to say to Rich Hall.
That has actually enraged me. Quite how the writer can so glibly knock such an influential and original performer and then be so completely and wildly inaccurate with regard to what to expect from the show is beyond me. If there is an award for "lazy journalism" (a favourite phrase on the Pasoti messageboard) then that surely walks away with it. Apart from inaccurate and snidey snippets in Time Out I wonder just how close this wretched retch has ever got to the same level of achievement or whether he ever held the attention of theatreful of gig-goers for 2 hours? Somehow I suspect not. I suppose writing like a talentless twat is to be expected from somebody so clearly unable to perceive the talent in others. For every Roadrunner there has to be a Wile E. Coyote, I guess. What a shame this coyote's acme typewriter allows him to get such drivel published.
